Blog: Managed Services: Why Preparation is Key to Success

In a three-part series that began last week , I’m exploring a critical reason your organization doesn’t act like a startup: often large enterprise companies just can’t pivot, flex and react as quickly as a nimble fintech firm.

But there is a way for large companies to scale the fintech approach, and trickle it down into every layer of the organization. It requires a shift in priorities, underpinned and enabled by a strategic managed services partnership. In my first post on this topic, I explored the answer to a very common question: Why should my organization consider managed services?

Today, I want to get into some tactical processes that can drive success. Because that’s the second common question I often get asked by customers: How can we ensure success when we implement a managed services model?

Enterprise organizations are no strangers to transformation – it’s a core capability that ensures longevity. According to Forrester’s 2015 Global Business Technographics Business and Technology Services Survey, 67% of the global services decision-makers polled “rated undertaking major business/digital transformation a high or critical priority.”

Yet there are dramatic risks associated with transformation, notably illuminated in a McKinsey & Co. study that found companies with the most severe change management deficits realized just 35% of the value they expected to get out of a major change.

Fear of a vastly reduced ROI can stymie even the most well-intentioned projects. That’s why Diebold Nixdorf’s Consulting Services team advocates two major components for successful large-scale initiatives:

• Early change management:
  This is clearly a challenge for organizations, which may recognize the need for change management, but are loathe to accept that it’s part of the cost of doing business. Of course, when businesses are outsourcing, they’re trying to save money. They don’t want to be billing to a change management consultant. Yet as outlined above, lack of change management can be devastating to your business transformation. It’s never too early to start even a grass-roots campaign of communication, employee training and, crucially, the process of empowering key staffers to champion and socially norm the changes before, during and after the project. As part of a strategic engagement, Diebold Nixdorf advisors can also be on hand to facilitate the specific types of change management required in retail banking transformations.

• Incremental change:
  Transformation is a journey, not a destination, and therefore it’s a constantly evolving exercise. In that context, small, incremental changes may be a bit more palatable for enterprise companies faced with reconciling and updating infrastructure cobbled together over the course of many decades. One analyst we spoke with described a large credit card company that transitioned from offshore providers to a managed services model. The key to their success was approaching the enormous job in pieces, moving forward on an SOW-by-SOW basis, slowly but surely staying the course until the work was done.

Bold splashes of work often look good on paper, but pale under the harsh lights of cost-to-benefit analysis and free-cash availability. Small dashes of color, painted thoughtfully and with respect to the processes and structures already in place, can eventually reveal a beautiful new picture of success.

Watch for the final post in this series, when I’ll discuss the end result of implementing a managed services model: the benefits you can expect to see. Interested in talking about how Diebold Nixdorf managed services could drive a stronger ROI for your organization? Let’s talk.